


Parental Feelings

by pencilguin



Series: Culmets Celebration Week [3]
Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Humor, M/M, Paul is the most excited dad, kind of, non-human babies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-17 03:21:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21047450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pencilguin/pseuds/pencilguin
Summary: [spoilers for S2]Excitedly, Paul turned to look at Hugh. “If we’re lucky, we can finally restock and take some samples soon! And — oh!” To Hugh’s surprise, his face lit up in a way it rarely did. “Oh, Hugh! You’ll finally see my babies!”If record scratch moments were real, Hugh was definitely having one right now.For Culmets Celebration Week 2019Prompt: accidental baby acquisition





	Parental Feelings

**Author's Note:**

> This is unbeta'd, sorry for any mistakes.

“There you go,” Hugh said with a smile. “All patched up again.” They were nearly alone in sickbay, apart from one patient asleep a few beds down and a nurse in the opposite corner of the room with her back turned to them, so he didn’t hesitate to press a kiss to the freckles on Paul’s exposed, freshly healed shoulder.

“Thanks,” Paul replied fondly, then rolled the slightly torn sleeve of his undershirt down as best as he could and reached for his similarly damaged uniform jacket before hopping off the biobed.

The chirping of the intercom, followed by Saru’s voice, made them both look up.

“_Saru to Stamets. Are you feeling better, commander?_”

“Perfectly fine and ready to go,” Paul responded buoyantly. Hugh frowned at the prospect of him apparently all ready to go right back to work rather than taking some time to recover, but he didn’t say anything.

“_I am glad to hear that,_” Saru’s calm voice came back. “_I wanted to inform you that we have set a course to Veda’s Delta Two as you requested._”

Paul’s eyes went wide. “That’s great news, captain!”

“_As soon as you’re cleared for duty, you may begin working on your preparations._”

“Thank you, sir!”

“_Very well. Saru out._”

Excitedly, Paul turned to look at Hugh. “If we’re lucky, we can finally restock and take some samples soon! And — oh!” To Hugh’s surprise, his face lit up in a way it rarely did. “Oh, Hugh! You’ll finally see my babies!”

If record scratch moments were real, Hugh was definitely having one right now.

“Your…”

“Oh, right! I must’ve completely forgotten to tell you about them!”

Hugh stared at him.

“You’re gonna love them, I promise!” Paul said while putting on his jacket. “They’re the best thing I’ve ever made, and it’s true what they say, there’s no prouder moment in life than becoming a parent!”

“Paul, what — _what_ are you talking about?” Hugh asked, utterly confused. He was trying to smile but it felt a little strained. He had no idea what the hell was going on. _Parent? Babies?!_ What on earth had he missed while Paul was alone? He tried not to let hurt creep up on him. “What… what _babies_?”

Paul froze and stared at him. He finally seemed to realize that he’d lost Hugh somewhere along the way in his excitement.

“Oh. _Oh!_ No, Hugh, not _those_ babies!” he quickly replied. “They’re mushroom babies! _Stella_ babies! Oh, you’re gonna love them so much!” He was already back in his previous, cheerful mood, all but dragging Hugh along with him out of sickbay and back towards engineering. “C’mon, you’re not officially on shift anyway, I’ll tell you everything on the way.”

Bemused, Hugh let himself get swept along while Paul kept talking. He still wasn’t entirely following.

“We terraformed a moon! With _Prototaxites stellaviatori_! If we’re lucky, they’ll have survived the last nine hundred thirty years. Eight billion specimens, if my calculations are correct. And of course—” he turned around while walking, beaming at Hugh— “if I am their dad, then so are you!”

“Me?”

“Sure.” Paul’s expression softened with warmth and love. “You’re my partner.”

Hugh couldn’t _not_ return his smile in kind.

“Do you wanna join the landing party and come along to the surface?”

Hugh thought about this for about half a second. “Yes!”

Paul grinned, squeezed his hand, and started to walk a little faster.

Meanwhile, Hugh continued to smile to himself, still processing this new information. Apparently, he had just become a parent to eight billion trans-dimensional space mushrooms. Paul was right. The feeling was definitely something unlike any other he’d experienced so far, and he was actually excited to meet them now. And besides, he would never pass up an opportunity to see Paul in an EVA suit.


End file.
